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Let's Get Real Inc. Executive Director Kim Eberle, second from right, and group leader Michael Plas of Elyria, third from right, meet for the All Pathways to Recovery group at Let's Get Real's Lorain headquarters at 1939 Oberlin Ave. The community recovery organization moved from Vermilion to Lorain at the end of August 2018 and has helped dozens of people in the last few months.

Let's Get Real community recovery organization offers help from new home

Let's Get Real Inc. Executive Director Kim Eberle, second from right, and group leader Michael Plas of Elyria, third from right, meet for the All Pathways to Recovery group at Let's Get Real's Lorain headquarters at 1939 Oberlin Ave. The community recovery organization moved from Vermilion to Lorain at the end of August 2018 and has helped dozens of people in the last few months.

Let’s Get Real Inc., a community recovery organization helping people struggling with drug addiction, has found a new home in Lorain.

The nonprofit group started in Vermilion in 2013 to work with counseling agencies, health care providers, the faith-based community and any resources the volunteers can muster to help people journey from addiction to recovery.

Last year, the organization landed a major donation: The former Dombrowski-Riddle Funeral Home, 1939 Oberlin Ave. in Lorain.

Now, the building serves as a call center, headquarters and meeting space for a number of programs to aid in recovery, said Executive Director Kim Eberle and Melanie Williamson, executive assistant.

“I mean, there’s just so much stuff going on,” Eberle said.

Making the move

Let’s Get Real moved from its Vermilion office into Lorain on Aug. 31, 2018.

The Lorain building is not a shelter or sober living facility.

But it has become an information clearinghouse for those needing help with addiction.

“Both with our peers and the outreach, the basis of everything we’re doing is removing barriers between individuals with addiction and recovery,” Williamson said.

“And their family,” Eberle added.

“You know, it’s easy to say, well, they just need to get help, they need to get treatment,” Williamson said. “But actually getting into treatment, figuring out the insurance, finding an open bed is a very complicated process.

"And to expect someone who doesn't know the process and is actively on drugs to do it on their own, is not realistic.”

“It’s impossible,” Eberle said.

That’s where Let’s Get Real can help, they said.

Outreach coordinators at the office are in recovery or are allies to someone in recovery, often a family member.

Let’s Get Real has four part-time staff who answer the phones.

From November to the end of February, the outreach coordinators had 162 new calls and connected 105 callers to detox, treatment or recovery housing.

Another 20 family members with resources and emotional support, Eberle said.

Peer supporters

The new building has become a headquarters for certified peer recovery supporters, people in long-term recovery who are certified by the state of Ohio to provide services.

WHO is short for Warm Hand Off Project, in which six certified peer recovery supporters are on call 24 hours a day to respond to hospitals to assist people overdosing or in withdrawal.

From November to February, the Warm Hand Off peer supporters went on 158 call outs and were successful in getting 70 people into detox, treatment or recovery housing within 24 hours, Eberle said.

Most of those individuals were provided transportation by the peer supporters, she said.

“We didn’t wait; we just put you in a car,” Eberle said.

Meet and talk

Let’s Get Real hosts meetings at least five nights a week -- but not Alcoholics Anonymous.

There are more than 30 AA meetings in Lorain.

Eberle said she loves AA, but that need is being filled elsewhere.

“I said, let’s do something that will fill a gap, let’s do something else,” she said.

The weekly meetings include Lorain County’s All Recovery Meeting on Mondays, Family and Kids Support Group on Tuesdays, SMART Recovery, for Self Management and Recovery Training, on Wednesdays.

SMART Recovery is like cognitive behavioral therapy, Eberle said.

“It’s an actual didactic teaching group, if you will," she said. "It teaches them what to do with their feelings and how their actions have consequences, that kind of thing.”

Heroin Anonymous meets Thursdays and Life Recovery Bible Study and Adult Children of Alcoholics both meet on Fridays.

The groups focus on encouragement, “how far have you come and rah rah for you and get out the pompoms, let’s keep going,” Eberle said.

“Because as you know, a lot of people relapse with this disease,” she said. “So our approach is, let’s start from where that happened and why, and then we’re going forward.

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Richard Payerchin covers Lorain City Hall, business news and other interesting stories for The Morning Journal. Reach the author at rpayerchin@MorningJournal.com or follow Richard on Twitter: @MJ_JournalRick.